Don't Abuse Me

With all the hatred and turmoil in our country, the word “patriot” has been tarnished and almost destroyed. I hope it’s not too late to bring back its respected definition. Being a patriot used to mean to love, support, and defend your country. Yet, after what we’ve seen in the last few years, that word has become attached to hatred and semitism.

This is a wonderful country, a great place to live, and in order to live here with the freedom we enjoy, there are certain rules that need to be followed.

Now, you’ll ask, “How can you have freedom in you must follow certain rules?”

The answer is simple. Here are a few examples of what freedom means to me. I can go to any religious service I care to attend – or not! There is no one forcing me to go or stay home. I can cook my own dinner or go out to a restaurant. I can watch on TV whatever show grabs my interest. There are more but you get the idea. It’s like that old adage interpreted to read, if you don’t want it done to you, don’t do it to others.

That’s why stealing is a crime. I don’t want you stealing from me, and I’m sure you don’t want me stealing from you. So then, if you get caught stealing from anyone, you’d better be prepared to pay the cost – which is probably a stint in prison. Whoops! There goes your freedom.

Can you see where my thought train is going?

One of the freedoms many of us enjoy is having the freedom to display our American Flag. Don’t make fun of my flag. That piece of material symbolizes everything our country stands for. It represents the men and women who fought hard and died for us so we can enjoy our freedoms – all of them. Everyone should look at our flag with respect and awe.

The following is an excerpt that I cut out of my newspaper in April of 2015. It reads:

“An Egyptian court has sentenced a popular Armenian belly dancer to six months in prison for insulting the Egyptian flag after she allegedly wore a tight dress in its red, white, and black color scheme.

The court in Agouza, west of Cairo, said that Sofinar Gourian, known popularly as “Safinaz”, was fined approximately 15,000 pounds (equivalent to about $2000 USD) and was forced to pay an additional 10,000 pounds bail, pending appeal. The case had been initiated by a private complaint. Insulting the flag was made illegal by decree under Egyptian president Adly Mansour who ruled for a year after the army overthrew an elected but divisive Islamic president in 2013.”

Okay, so in short, what this dancer was supposed to have done was to design her costume using the colors of the Egyptian flag. And for that she was heavily fined and jailed.

Maybe we should take a cue from Egypt.

Look at our country. We have clothing designed to even look like our flag, let alone just using the colors. We have bikinis where the bra part of the bathing suit is blue with white stars and the bottom is red and white stripes. We have jackets that are decorated as the American flag. There are tags on our sneakers that say made in America using the symbol of our flag. We have people that use headbands and bandannas that look like the American flag.

At one time, all of this was illegal but in 1984, the Supreme Court ruled that the government can’t enforce the flag-protection laws regarding clothing. While it still seems disrespectful, you won’t get arrested for wearing an American flag t-shirt.

Besides wearing flag-covered clothing, there are a couple of other Flag Code violations that you can easily avoid. Most of these concern flag placement – a flag should never touch anything beneath it while it’s flying. It should never be used as a covering for a ceiling or a table. You should never place anything on the flag (like a “mark insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature”).

The American flag has been the icon for America since 1777.

A high school student entered a school project whose topic was “design the American flag”. This young man did, and his teacher gave him a B. Can you imagine? He sent his design to the US President (who at that time was President Eisenhower”). He liked it so much, he approved it and made it what has become our national symbol.

For whoever of you either don’t know or don’t remember: Red is for valor; white is for purity and innocence, and blue is for preservation and justice.

There is NO white and black! NO White and blue stripes! NO red, white, and blue with a bright yellow square with a stupid snake coiling upwards! It is RED, WHITE, AND BLUE!

Also, your flag should NEVER be flown at night unless you have it illuminated.

Our Flag should NEVER be used as a spear, or sword (as it was on January 6, 2023).

I just don’t like to see our flag abused. I like to see it displayed proudly and often. After all, she waves for us all, tall and proud. She has seen many wars and survived them all. Our flag has seen so much sadness, violence, and vandalism. Yet, she still waves tall and proud for all to see. She reminds us every day of the people who fought and died for us so we can have our freedom to be violent, mischievous, but most of all PEACEFUL.

Our American flag reminds us that even those who abuse her, have the right, even if it is illegal) to do so.

Our American flag symbolizes everything we stand for.

Our American flag symbolizes how far this country has evolved.

Our American flag symbolizes everything we hold dear.

Our American flag symbolizes us.

Our American flag is us!